01:830:101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Seasonal Affective Disorder, Sleep Paralysis, Pineal Gland

• School: Rutgers University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: 01:830:101
• Professor: Keiko Taga Brynildsen

Document Summary

Circadian rhythms: circadian rhythm: biological clock (controlled by hypothalamus) Suprachiasmatic nucleus (scn): in hypothalamus; sensitive to changes in light: note: relates to pineal gland. Gets darker > scn tells pineal gland to secrete melatonin. Gets lighter > scn tells pineal gland to stop secreting melatonin. Scn also controls body temperature [intertwined with sleep] Seasonal affective disorder (sad: treated with exposure to bright lights, arti cial lighting: breaks down melatonin. Non-rapid eye movement (n-rem): deep physical relaxation: stage 1: similar to drowsiness. Hyping or hypnagogic jerk (falling sensation during sleep) Hypnagogic hallucinations: stage 2: reductions in heart rate and muscle tension sleep talk, stage 3/4: deeply asleep, hard to awaken, disoriented sleep walk. Rapid eye movement (rem): brain waves resemble wakefulness: paradoxical sleep : asleep but brain functions as if you"re awake, eyes move back and forth, heart rate, blood pressure, breathing = erratic, dreams, sleep paralysis. Rem sleep: newborns spend 50% of sleep time in rem.